Will this retro toy turn out to be a cool gadget or worthless garbage?
If our reporter Seiji Nakazawa was to list off his top ten favourite things, collectibles and McDonald’s would be among them.
So while he was browsing through second-hand goods on Japanese marketplace site Mercari, his eyes widened with interest when he came across a McDonald’s French Fry Snack Maker, or “Fried Potato Snack Maker” as it’s called in Japanese.
Seiji wasted no time in ignoring the 7,000 yen (US$50.97) price tag, adding it to his cart and purchasing it before he had a chance to reconsider splurging on the retro gadget.
▼ When it arrived, the joy of seeing the product in person made Seiji glad he’d bought it.
According to the instructions on the box, this is a cooking toy that involves no cooking. Looking closer, Seiji read that the device is said to create the same texture as French fries, and judging by the photos, it looked downright amazing.
But would it turn out to be as good as it looked or would Seiji be the owner of a useless toy? Keen to find out, he carefully unboxed the gadget and followed the assembly instructions.
Ta daaa! It took just minutes for him to put the whole thing together, and Seiji gave it a ten-out-of-ten for ease of assembly.
Next, it was time to judge its ease of use, and to do that, Seiji grabbed a slice of bread and followed the instructions to use the cutter to create a small slice that would fit through the machine.
▼ Then he set the bread in the slot…
▼ … and used the roller to roll the bread through.
▼ Wow!!!
Like magic, the sliced bread had transformed into…French fries?! Seiji gave it full marks for ease of use, and marvelled at how much these little slices of bread looked like actual fries.
If Seiji were an actual kid, and not the kid-at-heart reporter he really is, he would play with this machine non-stop, rolling out French fry bread slices to fool all his classmates. Alas, he had serious work to do, and only his colleagues to fool, so he proceeded to the final step in his faux-French fry preparation.
▼ A dusting of cinnamon powder.
The cinnamon coating made the faux fries look far more realistic than Seiji could’ve ever anticipated, and now the only thing left to do was to try them.
Yep, they tasted sweet, and nothing like a French fry at all. Seiji described the flavour as “bread with cinnamon”, which isn’t surprising, as that’s all that went into making them. However, despite their plain flavour, Seiji couldn’t help but smile as he ate them.
The young, fun-loving child inside Seiji began to grow stronger with every bite, and his mind now danced with the possibilities of pranks he could pull on Mr Sato at their next senbero drinking party. Perhaps if he lightly toasted the bread before slotting it into the machine he could make them look and feel even closer to the real thing, to really fool the dark lord of the senbero.
▼ Sure, some might think this is a child’s toy, and they’d be right, given that its designed for children four-years-old and up.
But for Seiji, this retro toy is a cool gadget that’s worth the investment.
Photos © SoraNews24
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[ Read in Japanese ]